Are we getting more stupid by the year?
April 27th, 2007 by rbvandijkOver the weekend I read a Herald Article “are we getting stupider” I have not been able to find a link to the article but it is something that there is plenty of discussion about on the web. for example this from The New York Times.
In December, the National Center for Education Statistics published areport on adult literacy revealing that the number of college graduatesable to interpret complex texts proficiently had dropped since 1992from 40 percent to 31 percent.
A lot of these articles place blame on Google and in the case of the Herald article NCEA. This worries me, for it seems that there is a push for students to learn facts. I recall having to learn the capitals and countries of the world when I was in a particular class at Intermediate School. This makes me an asset in any pub quiz but as my wife tells me I am just full of useless information. So what are we to do in education do we continue to teach to the test as IB and Cambridge exams call for or is this an opportunity to use the new system and actually have some real change.
I recall this quote that two staff brought back from a differentiation conference “If we keep teaching our students the same way – and many keep on failing, who are the slow learners?”
The following table is copied from Andrew Churches Blog which also includes the tools with relation to Blooms revised taxonomy so have a look at what is available.
|
Traditional Approach |
Digital Alternative |
Software Tools (Italics Opensource or free version) |
|
Note taking |
Brainstorm and word processing software |
Inspiration, smartideas, Cmap, Freemind, open office, StarOffice writer, MS Word, Abiword, Notepad, one-note |
|
Formal writing |
Word Processing software
Desktop publishing software |
StarOffice writer, MS Word, Abiword,Notepad, Google documents, AJAXwrite, Open Office, Microsoft Publisher, PagePlus |
|
Drafting process |
Word Processing Software |
StarOffice writer, MS Word, Abiword, Notepad, Google documents, AJAXwrite, Open Office |
|
Formal Communications. E.g. Letters |
|
emails, IM, Blogs discussion boards and First Class conferences, Jotspot |
|
Informal Communications |
Email and instant messaging |
First Class Conferences, chatrooms, IM Moodle, Outlook, thunderbird |
|
Research from encyclopaedias etc |
Online encyclopaedias |
Britannica on line, wikipedia (with caution) etc, Living library.. |
|
Research from Newspapers, journals and magazines. |
Online newspapers etc |
Internet explorer, Firefox, RSS aggregaters, wizz RSS, blogspot feeds etc |
|
General research |
Search engines and directories, web quests |
Internet explorer, Firefox, RSS aggregaters |
|
Presenting material, creating posters etc |
Presentation software, graphics tools, web publishing |
Impress, powerpoint, Open Office,Corel draw, Staroffice Draw, Inkscape MS Paint, the GIMP, Tuxpaint, paint.Net, Adobe Photoshop, Photostory 3 |
|
Watching videos |
Digitised resources |
Microsoft media player, Quicktime, Google Video, YouTube, Teachertube |
|
Journals |
Blogs, vLogs |
First Class blogging tools, Blogger, bloglines, Myspaces, MSN, Google video, Youtube |
|
Distributing Homework and assignments |
Posting to conferences. |
Email, Blackboard, WebCT, MyClasses,First Class, Moodle, class blogs |
|
Collecting Homework |
Drop Boxes |
Email, Blackboard, WebCT, MyClasses,First Class, Moodle |
|
Paper based tests |
Electronic tests |
First Class, Moodle, LAMS, sharepoint, Myclasses, SurveyMonkey |
|
Voting and surveys (paper based or show of hands) |
Online surveys and Polls |
First Class, Survey Monkey Moodle, LAMS |
|
Discussions |
Asynchronous & synchronous tools, IM, Chatrooms, Forums, Threaded discussions |
First Class,MSN, Yahoo messenger, Moodle, LAMS |
|
Brainstorming |
Brainstorming software |
Smartideas, Kidspiration, Cmap, Freemind, Inspiration |
|
Personal Organisation |
Calendaring and task |
First Class, Ganttproject, MS Project, task coach, Moodle, Outlook |
|
Mathmatics (paper based, calculator |
Spreadsheet, calculators |
Star Office Calc, Open Office, MS Excel, Standard and scientific calculators, digitiser |
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